Car & Driver Editor must be Dazed & Confused

[ndennis]

Good evening all. I read this letter and response in the July 2006 edition of Car & Driver:



Diesels Rock!

"There was a glaring error in the technical specs of the "Beaters" article. If you're going to talk about diesels, you gotta get the lingo right. All the diesels in the story used indirect-injection designs, not direct injection as you wrote. I know Csaba knows the difference. Maybe it's time for him hold a chalk talk for the authors and tech writers.

J. J. White

Unreachable, Ohio"



C&D Editor replies:

"Yeah, but all the tech writers are busy writing the "How to Change Your Oil" feature for Cucuzza(note the name referenced was for a previous letter to editor). Fact is, White, we're aware these older diesels have fuel injected into prechambers. That's still direct injection. Spraying fuel into intake manifold is indirect injection. --ED"



I emailed the following to C&D:



To whom it may concern,

I have to disagree with your response to JJ White's letter which reminded you that the diesel's used in your test were indirect injected diesel engines... your editor was steadfast in his assertion that indirect injection involved injecting into intake manifolds. Not so, as all pre-chamber diesels are considered indirect injected by their manufacturers.

Direct injected diesels DO NOT have prechambers and the injection process involves significantly higher injection pressures(when compared to IDI technology) DIRECTLY into the cylinder during the compression cycle. I have owned a 83 D-50 Turbodiesel (IDI), an 88 Ford 7. 3 (IDI), a 95 Powerstroke(DI), a 99 VW (TDI), a 2000 Cummins(DI), and a 04. 5 Cummins 600(DI) I am not aware of ANY diesel engines that injected fuel into an intake manifold that were produced in the last 40 years... . gas engines yes... diesels no.

Me thinks your editor is dazed and confused about diesel technology... . probably spent too much time in the beaters with the windows rolled down????

Noel Dennis



Now I have always known that C&D has been anti-diesel for years, but I thought this needed to be responded to. BTW their email is

-- email address removed --



N Dennis

 

[EMD-Run8]

Oh well, we'll give 'em credit for at least a little diesel exposure anyway. Wait 'till Audi wins LeMans (we hope). I think that'll be news they can't ignore. Although, I don't think they mentioned the Audi R10 beating the track record at Sebring by two seconds so... ... ... ..... I dunno.

 

[ndennis]

TEMD-Run8:

They had a big writeup on the Audi TDI's a couple of months ago... talked about Sebring and the goal of winning the 24 hrs of LeMans.

N Dennis

 

[EMD-Run8]

Good, maybe there's hope for those gasser types after all.

 

[RustyJC]

Yeah, I saw that when my issue of C&D arrived. It made me wince!! I'm glad you took the time to correct Csaba.



Rusty

 

[kowaliga]

TEMD-Run8:

They had a big writeup on the Audi TDI's a couple of months ago... talked about Sebring and the goal of winning the 24 hrs of LeMans.

N Dennis

I watched that race a couple of weeks ago, on SPEED CHANNEL, and the two AUDI diesels were very fast and overpowered their competition. Sorry to hijack.

 

[CLiberty]

What do you expect from C&D? They`re too busy calculating front/rear weight bias on the latest Toyota Camry... or something important like that.

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

One of the editors said the Banks Dakota had a Cummins V6. To CD's credit though they have been paying more attention to diesels of late, and have written some good articles on them. One pointed out the fact that diesel power is the best and easiest solution to our transportation energy problem.



Vaughn

 

[cojhl2]

Indirect is into the manifold. Egads, how do you suppose they thought the firing time would take place. Shows they know nothing of the basic principle of diesels.



A number of years back "4Wheel and Off Road" had an article about the new Isuzu diesel pickup. They bragged on the compression of the engine slowing the pickup down while comming to a stop.



That pickup (I had one and loved it) had a sound like it was really holding back when the fuel pedal was released and that is on what they based that statement. But as we all know any IC engine has no way to retard speed. (Exception is the slight force of vacuum when the throttle is closed on a gas engine).



Here is an interesting tidbit. Used to haul post out of the woods of ID. Had long grades to decend with these F6 6cyl Fords with about 24k gross. With the ignition off and in a very low gear you could completly depress the gas pedal and the retard of the engine made no change vs throttle closed. This tells me that compression even on a gas engine is not the major contributor to retardation.



Well anyway I guess I jumped the tracks on this thread didn't I.